The Amazon Code (33 page)

His father was there, and his brother. A hunting trip. A bear cub had wandered into their camp, and Ben’s brother had come between the cub and its mother. Ben’s father died saving him. His mother never truly recovered.
 

That was almost fourteen years ago, and he’d become a park ranger shortly after that. He’d wanted a job that was solitary, something away from people and busyness. When he’d arrived at the park and started working, he realized immediately that he’d done it for the wrong reasons.
 

He loved the park job, and dedicated the next decade to it, but it was Juliette Richardson who’d finally forced him to realize the truth. He didn’t hate people, he just hated the pain they caused. He wanted to help, and was stubbornly dedicated to the people he loved and worked with, and would do anything to protect them. He was reclusive because he was afraid, not because he was angry. She’d made him realize that.
 

Reggie soon joined Archie. “Ben, he knew the risks. We all do.”
 

“He had nothing to do with —“
 

“None of us do, Ben. It’s no one’s fight, and that’s exactly why you and I are fighting it.”
 

Ben eyed Reggie suspiciously.
 

“I’m on to you, Bennett,” Reggie said. “Julie filled me in on a bit of it, but I got the rest pretty quickly.”
 

“What are you talking about?” Ben asked.
 

“You and I are the same this way, Ben. We care about people in a way that makes us stupid sometimes.”
 

Ben frowned.

“It’s not always a bad thing, man. You’re here, and that’s good. No one else on the planet would throw themselves in the face of this willingly. You
flew
here.
On a plane
.
Two
planes, actually.” Reggie grinned.
 

“She told you about that?”
 

“Yeah, sorry.” Reggie rapped him on the back. “Everyone’s got something, you know?”
 

Ben laughed.
 

“There aren’t a lot of guys I’ve met like you. You’re stubborn as hell, but you use it smartly. Under pressure.”
 

Ben started walking away, trying to distance himself from the river and not think about the fact that when all this was over, when they’d finally found what they were looking for and somehow stayed alive, they’d have to cross it once more.
 

“Carlo was a good man, I’m sure,” Reggie said. “We’ll make sure to find his family. Right now, though, we need you. All of you. Understand?”
 

Ben nodded.
 

“Good. Julie’s out there somewhere, and she needs you to get her back.”
 

Ben tensed at the mention of her name, but he knew Reggie was right. The man wasn’t pandering to him or manipulating his emotions. He spoke in truths, and laid out the facts. It was one of the things he liked about Reggie.
 

Archie had rejoined Paulinho and both men were checking the bruising that remained on Paulinho’s torso. It was a terrible bluish-black color, but Paulinho seemed to be doing well. The bruise-covered area was already growing smaller too, it seemed. Archie poked and prodded it in a few places, and both men soon deemed it healthy enough to continue forward.
 

“You ready?” Reggie asked.
 

Ben thought for a moment, his subconscious still churning through scenarios that would allow him to not have to free-climb a rock wall. Not finding a suitable scenario, he nodded. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
 

Reggie grinned. “You got this.”

Reggie walked the few paces over to Archie, Rhett, and Paulinho and asked the same question, but before Ben could listen for their responses, he heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire cracking through the air. He squinted, trying to see across the river at the source of the commotion.
 

The gunfire continued, steady bursts of shots echoing over the river’s surface and reaching Ben, then bouncing off the cliff face behind him and back over the water. It created a tin can effect, adding more confusion and threatening chaos to the mix of emotions Ben was feeling.
 

Julie suddenly stumbled out onto the same ledge they’d descended from less than an hour earlier, the gunshots continuing to rip through the jungle.
 

54

“JULIE!” HE SHOUTED. HE WAVED his arms above his head, hoping to get her attention.
 

Julie didn’t wave back. Instead, she jumped forward and down off the rock platform, her feet eventually finding the unstable jungle floor that sloped up below the ledge. She slid the rest of the way to the ground, barely stopping to catch her breath.
 

The same walk that had taken Ben’s group about fifteen minutes had taken Julie less than thirty seconds.
 

Ben knew what that meant, too.
She’s the one they’re shooting at. She’s running from
them.

His joy at her appearance was soon replaced, yet again, by fear, anger, and the slow, smoldering feeling of revenge. He shouted out to her again, but she was intently focused on getting across the river.
 

“Julie! Wait! There are —“

He knew she could hear him, but as he tried to shout his warning to her about the deadly predators lurking just below the surface of the water, he felt Reggie tugging on his shoulder.

“Ben, stop. Look.”
 

Reggie pointed up at the ledge, and Ben’s eyes followed him there. The ledge, he now realized, was probably the only entrance to the valley they were in.
 
The natural form of the landscape, coupled with the density of the jungle they were in, did not allow any access to this place besides entering through the same tree pillars they’d found. The doorway into their little valley.
 

And that doorway was not empty.
 

Ben could see the younger mercenary — the one he recognized from the video at NARATech — looking down into the valley. His rifle was slung over his shoulder, but he held a pistol in his right hand. Ben could almost feel his eyes on him, staring. Ben clenched his jaw and started forward.
 

Again, Reggie held him back.
 

“Those shots were from assault rifles,” Reggie said. “And he’s not using one.”
 

Ben listened for a moment and heard the popping sounds of gunfire still ringing out in the distance. The trees dampened the sound a bit, but the noise was crisp enough to carry easily into the valley.
 

“What are you saying?” Ben asked.
 

“He’s not the one shooting at Julie, and I don’t think he’s trying to catch her. I think they’re
all
running from the mercenaries.”
 

Ben frowned when Reggie mentioned ‘all’ of them, but he continued to watch the platform and realized what Reggie meant. Behind the man standing on the ledge, he saw a splash of blond hair.
Amanda
.
 

“Dr. Meron’s up there with him,” Reggie said.
 

The man didn’t wait for Amanda to catch her breath. He jumped forward just like Julie had, sliding down the ramp of twisted, rotting jungle flora and out onto the wide riverbank. Amanda followed. She botched the landing, but the man reached down and helped her to her feet.
 

“He’s helping her,” Ben said. He felt silly for not being able to do anything from their location, only offering commentary from afar.
 

When Amanda had recovered, the man stepped into the river and started across. Ben lifted his pistol and checked it, then held it out in front of him. He aimed toward the man, but knew it would be at least another minute before he was within range.
 

Julie neared the middle of the river, and Ben dropped the gun. He wanted to tell her to turn back, to wait on the other side of the river. But the man was following her, only a few paces behind, and there was still someone shooting at them on the other side of the river.
 

He forced himself to ignore the knowledge of what might be in the river, waiting for another victim, and he lifted the gun back up. He turned, expecting to see Reggie mirroring his action. Instead, Reggie was calmly staring off toward the river, as if nothing was wrong.
 

“What are you doing?” Ben asked.
 

“Something doesn’t add up,” he said. “I’m waiting.”
 

“For what?”
 

At first Reggie didn’t answer, but then he motioned with a quick flick of his neck at the ledge once more. Ben, again, looked up to see. He hadn’t heard the gunshots in about a minute, and the reason why was standing in the doorway to the valley.
 

The mercenaries.
 

He could only fully see the two men standing next to one another out in front, but he could make out the shapes of at least six more men standing in lines behind them. The two men in front were staring down into the valley, just like Julie and the other man had done, assessing their options.
 

Ben tried to imagine their thoughts.
 

Shoot them from here, or move down to the river?

He strode forward, nearing the edge of the water.
Come down here,
he thought.
Let’s make it a fair fight.
 

Julie was across the river, and Ben was so focused on the mercenaries he almost didn’t realize she was calling out to him.
 

“Ben!” she yelled again. He turned, surprised, and nearly fell backwards when she leapt into his arms, embracing him.

She was crying, but smiling. He pulled her in close and rested her head on his shoulder as he squeezed. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, you?”

“I’m alive, but I’m ready to be out of this jungle. That cruise sounds pretty good right about now.”

Julie laughed, but Reggie was there to interrupt their rendezvous. “Time to go, lovebirds. We’ve got company.”

Ben looked over to see that the man behind Julie had indeed made it across the river. Amanda was close behind him, and Archie and Paulinho were already preparing to wade out to help her. Reggie and Ben lifted their pistols and aimed at the man.

“Don’t shoot, Ben,” Julie said. “He’s here to help.”

Ben was visibly caught off guard but he didn’t lower the gun.
 

“It’s okay,” the man said. “Julie’s right.

Reggie took a few steps forward, still aiming at the man’s chest. To his credit, the man in the river had his arms in the air, his rifle still slung over his shoulder and his pistol in a hip holster. Ben realized then what the man’s strategy was. By wading through the river with Julie in front of him, Ben’s group wouldn’t shoot at him. With Amanda behind, the mercenaries wouldn’t either. As long as it stayed that way, neither firing squad could harm the man.
 

It seemed as though the mercenaries had decided to take the safer way down, as they had disappeared from the platform back into the woods. Ben knew they were only a few minutes from emerging again on the other side of the river, and by then they’d be in shooting distance. He squinted in the sunlight, watching the three bodies progress across the river.

The leader of the mercenaries was about to walk into their camp, and Ben wasn’t sure what they would do when he did.

55

THE MEN FROM JULIE’S AND Amanda’s group were waiting for him on the other side of the river. Julie had already reached Bennett, and Joshua saw them embrace for a moment on the shore. He felt a quick pang of regret, a feeling he wasn’t entirely comfortable with, as he watched. He slowly raised his arms in the air to show his surrender.
 

“She’s not lying,” Joshua said again. “But we don’t have a lot of time. They’re coming down here, and they’re not going to —“

“You
led
them down here,” Ben said.
 

“Perhaps, but they would have found you anyway. I’m no tracker, but you leave a pretty obvious trail.”
 

Joshua had made it almost to the edge of the river and he now felt the ground beneath him sloping upward. The slope continued past the waterline and into the dense jungle behind it, moving toward the bottom of a sharp cliff just beyond. He eyed the unique feature. A cliff was out of context here, in a generally flat basin like the Amazon. There were no mountains, no rocky outcrops, and certainly no cliffs.
 

Generally
.
 

Like many other places he’d been in the world, surprises lurked everywhere. He should have expected he’d find something like this out here in the most remote section of the planet. The cliff wasn’t particularly tall, either, which made it seem almost justifiable — it wouldn’t be easily spotted by satellite reconnaissance, and the entire cliff structure was sunken into a larger, bowl-like valley that they were all now standing in.
 

The group was all staring at him as he made his way up the last few feet of the natural embankment. Two of the other men from the group had waded out to retrieve Dr. Meron, who was barely able to stand on her own. They’d hurried back with Amanda and all three were now exiting the river about ten feet upstream from him. He looked from one person to another, finally landing on the one standing a few steps behind the others, his head down.
 

Rhett.

Joshua felt all the rage he’d ever felt toward the back-stabbing, lying man he shamefully knew as his younger brother. He focused the feelings into his eyes, waiting for him to look up. When he didn’t, Joshua charged forward.
 

“You lying piece of —“

Another man suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking his way. Joshua recognized the man who had joined the group back at the hotel, the one wearing the permanent grin on his face.
 

“Good to meet you,” the man said, completely oblivious of Joshua’s irate attitude. “Name’s Reggie, and this —“